JOHN, LORD VISCOUNT BRACKLEY,

Son and Heir Apparent to the Earl of Bridgewater, &c.

MY LORD,

This Poem, which received its first occasion of birth from yourself, and others of your noble family, and much honour from your own person in the performance, now returns again to make a final Dedication of itself to you. Although not openly acknowledged by the Author, yet it is a legitimate offspring, so lovely, and so much desired, that the often copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction, and brought me to a necessity of producing it to the public view; and now to offer it up in all rightful devotion to those fair hopes, and rare endowments of your much promising youth, which give a full assurance, to all that know you, of a future excellence. Live, sweet Lord, to be the honour of your name, and receive this as your own, from the hands of him who hath by many favours been long obliged to your most honoured parents, and as in this representation your attendant Thyrsis, so now in all real expression,

Your faithful and most humble servant,

H. LAWES.

COMUS.

THE PERSONS.

THE ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterwards in the habit of Thyrsis.

COMUS, with his Crew.

THE LADY.

FIRST BROTHER.

SECOND BROTHER.

SABRINA, the Nymph.

THE CHIEF PERSONS WHICH PRESENTED WERE

The Lord BRACKLEY.

Mr. THOMAS EGERTON, his brother.

The Lady ALICE EGERTON.

Henry Lawes, as I hyrsia.

The first Scene discovers a wild wood.

The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters.

BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court permanent My mansion is, where those immortal shapes abode of bright aërial spirits live inspher'd

In regions mild of calm and serene air;

when see, Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot, fine 5 of ar. Which men call Earth, and with low-thoughted care

Crowded Confin'd, and pester'd in this pinfold here, sheep-fold.

ΙΟ

Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being;
Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives,
After this mortal change, to her true servants
Amongst the enthron'd gods on sainted seats.
Yet some there be that by due steps aspire
8 adapted to the
To lay their just hands on that golden key
purpose.
That opes the palace of eternity: til palace
To such my errand is, and but for such,
I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds,
With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.

15

Jove rules in the after air; nether Jove in Hader.

great

But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway
Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream,
Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove,
Imperial rule of all the sea-girt iles,
That like to rich and various gems inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep;
Which he to grace his tributary gods

By course commits to several government,

And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns,
And wield their little tridents; but this ile,

The greatest and the best of all the main,

He quarters to his blue-hair'd deities;

And all this tract that fronts the falling sun,

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25

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A noble peer of mickle trust and power to whom much
Has in his charge, with temper'd awe to guide

Armee & I.21 An old and haughty nation, proud in arms:

Where his fair off-spring nurst in princely lore,
Are coming to attend their father's state,
And new-entrusted sceptre; but their way

trusted.

35

entangled, Lies through the perplext paths of this drear wood, The nodding horror of whose shady brows billy buck, a

Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger.
And here their tender age might suffer peril,
But that by quick command from sovran Jove,
I was dispatcht for their defence and guard;
And listen why; for I will tell ye now
What never yet was heard in tale or song,
From old or modern bard, in hall or bow'r.
Bacchus.
Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape
was carries Crush't the sweet poison of misused wine,

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been too

off by fire After the Tuscan mariners transform'd, hed
Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed,
trausford On Circe's iland fell (who knows not Circe
into dolphine The daughter of the Sun? whose charmed cup
Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape,
And downward fell into a groveling swine)
This Nymph that gaz'd upon his clust'ring locks,
With ivy berries wreath'd, and his blithe youth,
incidere in. Solent.

2 fell

of

ва

Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son
Much like his father, but his mother more,
Whom therefore she brought up and Comus nam'd;
Who ripe, and frolic of his full-grown age,
Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields,

a

At last betakes him to this ominous wood; rtculous, garden
And in thick shelter of black shades imbowr'd,

Excels his mother at her mighty art,

Offering to every weary travailer,

His orient liquor in a crystal glass, bright, exarbling, of Pito.

To quench the drouth of Phœbus; whích as they taste
(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst),
Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance,
Th' express resemblance of the gods, is chang'd
Into some brutish form of wolf, or bear,
Or ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
All other parts remaining as they were;

And they, so perfect is their misery,

Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,

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But boast themselves more comely than before;
And all their friends and native home forget,

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To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.

full of Therefore when any favour'd of high Jove

ture Chances to pass through this adventrous glade, open place.

Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star

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I shoot from Heav'n, to give him safe convoy ;

As now I do: but first I must put off

These my sky-robes spun out of Iris' woof,
And take the weeds and likeness of a swain

That to the service of this house belongs;

Who with his soft pipe, and smooth-dittied song,
Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar,
And hush the waving woods, nor of less faith,
And in this office of his mountain watch
Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid
Of this occasion. But I hear the tread
Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now.

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invisible

COMUS enters, with a charming-rod in his hand, his glass
in the other; with him a rout of monsters, headed like
sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men and
women, their apparel glistring; they come in making a
riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands.

Tipsy dance, and jollity.

wreathe

Braid your locks with rosy twine, wore the of rose,

Dropping odours, dropping wine.
Rigour now is gone to bed,

consideration And Advice with scrupulous head,
deliberation Strict Age, and sour Severity,

f. 4.151.

105

commune Mare, diell,

With their grave saws in slumber lie. rerbs

We that are of purer fire

Imitate the starry quire,

Who in their nightly watchful spheres

Lead in swift round the months and years.

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little & prolly

The sounds, and seas with all their finny drove
Now to the moon in wavering morrice move;
And on the tawny sands and shelves,
Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.
By dimpled brook, and fountain brim,
thThe wood-nymphs deckt with daisies trim,
Their merry wakes and pastimes keep:
What hath night to do with sleep?

Night hath better sweets to prove,

120

Venus now wakes, and wak'ns Love.